Tuesday, 12 September 2017

Instagram Invisibilty - Why, as a community, we have to support one another

Over the last few months shadow bans, bots and algorithms have been the words on everyone in the blogging communities lips. It seems like Instagram - a once loved and admired social platform is slowly becoming everyone's biggest nightmare. We are stressed about our lack of engagement, obsessing over our follower count and generally, Instagram is becoming one huge headache.

I must tell you there have been several messages exchanged between the TQR team; obsessing about how badly a beloved and meticulously shot photo has done and analysing the exact time we should be posting. We have noticed an undeniable drop in engagement, even though we feel as though our content is slowly but surely improving. The classic Instagram formula is beautiful content + engaging in the Instagram Community = likes & followers. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. It's completely demotivating, but I have some thoughts on what we need to do to improve the situation.

I have been planning this post for a few weeks now and taking notes on what I wanted to say, but last night I was really inspired by something I posted on Facebook. I have been lucky enough to enjoy a few days away at the Spa with my Aunt, which has been absolutely wonderful and I took a lovely snap of her relaxing in the lounge and posted it to my Facebook profile. Almost instantly I was inundated with likes and comments of love and support from all my friends and family. She is one of the kindest and most loving people I know, but I was struck at the truly authentic and genuine encouragement her and I received on the post - and it really made me think.

Why is it that our parents and grandparents generation takes pride in boosting each other up and celebrating one another's triumphs, while we all seem to find it much more difficult to do this. I can't speak for everyone and I know that younger people are less active on Facebook but this engagement doesn't seem to be transferable to platforms that we are active on. I see friends get less than 10 likes when posting beautiful work they have produced or talking about a subject they are passionate about. It really is sad and over the last few years, I have made an effort to 'like' everything I see on social media that is positive for somebody, regardless if I saw this friend last week or three years ago. I know we shouldn't get wrapped up in how many likes we get, but I think something as little as a like on a bad day can really improve our moods.

A few months ago I had a pretty humiliating and deflating experience with two fellow bloggers. I was on a bit of a liking spree and was finding fellow Scottish bloggers to follow and support their accounts. There were two particular girls who I'd followed and liked 5 or 6 of their photos and after about five minutes of doing this, we were tagged in a photo. It was a screen shot of one of the girl's notifications of the new follower and likes she had received from me - with a caption that said something like 'U ok @thequietresolution?' with sarcastic emojis. I felt pretty embarrassed by this remark and went to unfollow her before I got the chance another girl commented on the photo too. She said 'I have the same lol' with an embarrassed face and laughing emojis. I was furious by this exchange but decided to ignore it and not stoop as low as to unfollow them.

Taking it back to a more positive note - I honestly believe this mentality is how we beat the algorithm. Make a mental note of all the bloggers in your community that you admire, know personally or not and support them as much as you can! It's so easy to get competitive with people but it's ten times better to make friends and become a support system for one another. We have as a group and individually made so many lovely friends, and created a really creative and supportive community to blog in.

I think liking a photo is great, but also retweeting a fellow blogger's inspiring blog post or sharing their page on your story is such a small but fantastic thing to do. These small acts of assistance can really make a difference. I have seen a lot of talk from bigger bloggers admitting they never follow accounts anymore, and that makes me really sad. They talk about how people really need to prove themselves more, I'm not saying you should just follow anyone but if you like someone's account I think it is truly petty not to follow them out of spite, or looking like you are following too many people.

Every week I try and find new accounts to follow that are inspiring or entertaining to me in some way. I also make a point of supporting my peers and taking an interest in their lives and what they are blogging about. I truly believe that if we all pull together a little more and help each other this Instagram mess wouldn't seem half as bad. I would love to know any fellow bloggers or Instagrammers thoughts on this subject, and please leave your handle below for your social media platforms!

How rude of them! I hold back on liking too many photos of the same account because I've seen this happen before. I've started commenting on new blog posts whenever I read one- it's nice to be nice and I know I always appreciate it!

I can very much relate. I feel I was just getting more engagement & then everything just dropped. It's so demotivating, I have worked so hard to build my social media for my wee business. Folk in my area of the far north don't get it at all

Such a good read - totally agree with everything you've said, and I'll never understand why a blogger would try and bring another down! Instagram is a total headache at the minute and I do think the only way we'll be able to 'best' it is to help each other out!!Chantelle xThe Girl In The Tartan Scarf

My little way of combatting the Instagram algorithm and actually seeing my favourite bloggers' content is to make a point of clicking over to their Instagram - or, even better, to individual photos, if they have an Insta widget as part of their theme - and liking a couple of photos while I'm reading a particular post. Takes two seconds and, as I have more reliable ways of following and seeing new blog content, isn't as likely to fall foul of some algorithm that nobody understands.

I always make a point of commenting on blog posts too, I've been blogging so long that it comes naturally to me and people always tell me they appreciate it!